The short answer
Look at saturated fat per serving, and aim for about 2g or less per 2/3 cup. In our comparison, that meant light ice creams and low-fat frozen yogurt. Regular ice cream had 5 to 8g, and premium pints 11 to 16g, which is most or all of a day's limit in one bowl.
Lowest in saturated fat in our table:
- Halo Top Sea Salt Caramel (US): about 1g per 2/3 cup
- Halo Top Brownie Batter (US) and Ben & Jerry's Half Baked frozen yogurt (US): 2g
- Halo Top Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (UK): about 2.4g
- Edy's / Dreyer's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean (US): 2.5g
Fruit sorbet usually has no saturated fat at all, and you can make a banana nice cream with almost none.
Label data only, not medical advice
This ranking compares what each product's nutrition label says about saturated fat and sugar. It isn't a health rating of any brand, and none of these ice creams lower cholesterol. Recipes change, so check the label on the tub you buy. If your doctor or dietitian has given you specific limits, follow those.
15 ice creams ranked by saturated fat
Every product is compared on the same 2/3 cup serving, the standard US label serving (about one and a half scoops). Bands: Better 2g or less, Occasional over 2g up to 4.5g, Treat over 4.5g, about a third of the American Heart Association's 13g daily limit or more.
| Halo Top Sea Salt Caramel | 1g | 8% | Better |
| Ben & Jerry's Half Baked Frozen Yogurt | 2g | 15% | Better |
| Halo Top Brownie Batter | 2g | 15% | Better |
| Halo Top Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough | 2.4g | 18% | Occasional |
| Edy's / Dreyer's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean | 2.5g | 19% | Occasional |
| Swedish Glace Smooth Vanilla (dairy-free) | 4.1g | 32% | Occasional |
| Carte d'Or Madagascan Vanilla | 5.5g | 42% | Treat |
| Breyers Natural Vanilla | 6g | 46% | Treat |
| Dreyer's / Edy's French Vanilla | 6.2g | 48% | Treat |
| Talenti Madagascan Vanilla Bean Gelato | 8g | 62% | Treat |
| Tillamook Old-Fashioned Vanilla | 8g | 62% | Treat |
| Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie | 11g | 85% | Treat |
| Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough | 13g | 100% | Treat |
| Häagen-Dazs Vanilla | 13g | 100% | Treat |
| Häagen-Dazs Salted Caramel | 16.2g | 125% | Treat |
Nutrition data from Open Food Facts, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Product names link to each product's Open Food Facts page.
What the ranking shows
- Premium pints are the heaviest by far. Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's use more cream and less air, so a 2/3 cup weighs 130 to 140g against 80 to 95g for a supermarket tub. Their per-serving saturated fat (11 to 16g) is close to or above a whole day's limit.
- Regular supermarket vanilla sits in the middle. Breyers, Dreyer's and Carte d'Or come in at 5 to 6g per serving: a reasonable occasional treat, not an everyday dessert.
- "Light" really is lighter. Halo Top and Slow Churned are made with skimmed milk and more air, and come in at 1 to 2.5g.
- Dairy-free isn't automatically lower. The dairy-free vanilla in the table (about 4g) has more saturated fat than the light dairy options, because its fat comes from coconut.
- Low saturated fat can mean more sugar. The frozen yogurt is one of the lowest in saturated fat but one of the highest in sugar. Sort the table by sugar to see the trade-off.
How to choose a lower-saturated-fat ice cream
- Find the saturated fat line. In the US it's "Saturated Fat" on the Nutrition Facts panel, per serving. In the UK it's "of which saturates", usually per 100g. UK labelling counts more than 5g per 100g as high and 1.5g or less as low.
- Check the serving size. US tubs list a 2/3 cup serving, but a pint of Ben & Jerry's is three of those. If you usually eat half a pint, multiply by one and a half.
- Compare like for like. UK labels per 100g make dense premium ice cream look closer to a light one than it is per scoop, because a scoop of premium ice cream weighs more.
- Don't stop at "dairy-free" or "cholesterol-free". Plant-based ice creams have no cholesterol, but coconut oil is mostly saturated fat.
- Watch the mix-ins. Brownie, cookie dough and chocolate-coated pieces add saturated fat on top of the base, as the Ben & Jerry's flavours in the table show.
Make your own instead
Frozen banana blended with berries or cocoa makes a creamy "nice cream" with almost no saturated fat, and a mango sorbet takes two minutes. All three recipes are in our guide to ice cream and high cholesterol.
Check any tub before you buy it
Scan any product's barcode in Heart Tracker to see its saturated fat per serving, then log it to see how it fits into your day alongside your cholesterol results.
Download Heart Tracker FreeHow we ranked them
We picked widely sold ice creams in the US and UK, from budget tubs to premium pints, and took each one's nutrition data from Open Food Facts, an open database built from product labels. To catch mistakes, we compared each product's current record with an earlier copy and left out any where the saturated fat, fat or sugar didn't match, or where the serving size couldn't be worked out without guessing.
All products are compared on a 2/3 cup serving. US products use the gram weight of the 2/3 cup serving on their own label. UK tubs are labelled per 100g and per 100ml, so we used the pack's stated weight and volume to work out what 2/3 cup (158ml) weighs. Percentages are of 13g, the American Heart Association's suggested daily limit for saturated fat on a 2,000 calorie diet. The NHS upper limit is 20g a day for women and 30g for men. The full dataset and the script that builds it are kept with this page and refreshed periodically.
Ice cream and cholesterol: quick answers
What is the best ice cream for high cholesterol?
Going by saturated fat on the label, light ice creams and low-fat frozen yogurts came out lowest in our comparison, at about 1 to 2.5g per 2/3 cup, against 5.5 to 16g for regular and premium ice cream. Fruit sorbet usually has none. Check the saturated fat line for the exact product you buy, and keep portions to a single 2/3 cup serving.
How much saturated fat is in a serving of ice cream?
In the 15 products we compared, a 2/3 cup serving ranged from about 1g to 16g of saturated fat. Regular supermarket vanilla was around 5 to 6g, premium brands like Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's 11 to 16g, and light ice creams 1 to 2.5g. The American Heart Association suggests about 13g of saturated fat a day in total on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Is dairy-free ice cream lower in saturated fat?
Not necessarily. Dairy-free ice cream contains no cholesterol, but many are made with coconut oil or coconut milk, which are mostly saturated fat. The dairy-free vanilla in our table had about 4g of saturated fat per 2/3 cup, more than the light dairy ice creams. Compare the saturated fat figure, not the dairy-free claim.
Is frozen yogurt better than ice cream for cholesterol?
Low-fat frozen yogurt is usually much lower in saturated fat than regular ice cream. The frozen yogurt in our table had about 2g per 2/3 cup, but it was also one of the highest in sugar, so it's still a dessert rather than a health food.
Does any ice cream lower cholesterol?
No. None of the ice creams here are cholesterol-lowering foods. Choosing one with less saturated fat simply means a dessert uses up less of your daily saturated fat limit, which leaves room for the rest of your diet.
Sources
- Open Food Facts (product nutrition data, ODbL)
- American Heart Association: Saturated fat
- NHS: Fat, the facts
- FDA: Serving size on the Nutrition Facts label